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Exp 9 F

The "will they, won't they" saga over Bentley's SUV plans appears to finally be over. They will. That's according to the German business newspaper Handelsblatt, which is reporting that the controversial SUV will be built after receiving the go-ahead from Volkswagen's board.

In concept form, the Bentley EXP 9 F had neither the styling nor the name to impress us when we first saw it earlier this year at the Geneva Motor Show, and while we already knew some sort of design change was imminent, we're unsurprisingly now hearing that a name change is also in the cards. Automobile Magazine is reporting that the eventual production Bentley SUV will get a complete redesign from what we saw in the EXP 9 F, and it will wear a new name as well: Falcon.

After surveying the European economic scene, Volkswagen may have decided now is not the time to launch utility vehicles with Bentley and Lamborghini badges. Bentley officials say they will continue to push for support for the EXP 9 F and Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelman has said planning for the Urus will continue until VW tells it to stop.

While at Pebble Beach, Bentley CEO Wolfgang Dürheimer sat down with Inside Line to elaborate on plans for the production version of its controversial EXP 9 F concept SUV. As recently as a month ago, the blue behemoth was still being talked about as if a final decision hadn't been made, Durheimer didn't appear to show any reticence when discussing what the report cited as "the 2015 production date."

Bentley has now paraded its EXP 9 F concept in front of crowds at the Geneva Motor Show where it debuted, the Beijing Motor Show, and most recently at last weekend's Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK. Still claiming that the concept SUV is "part of a systematic and comprehensive process of gauging customer and public reaction to the idea of a Bentley SUV," yet nevertheless getting very specific about what would power such an SUV and how many they would hope to sell, the English automaker is c

Bentley is an automaker not without its own racing pedigree, but the bulk of that is anchored in the 1920s and at Le Mans, to which it returned in winning form in the earlier part of the new millennium with the Speed 8. The latest development could, however, see the Flying B marque enter into another class of motorsport competition altogether.

If you want a top-of-the-line SUV with serious performance capabilities, look no further than the Volkswagen Group. Its Porsche unit has had tremendous success with the Cayenne, a vehicle that has doubled its sales all on its own – and that's not even accounting for the Volkswagen Touareg or Audi Q7 that share some of its underpinnings. Keen to capitalize on that success, the German auto giant is overseeing the application of the same formula to two of its other divisions: Lamborghini, whi

If you want a top-of-the-line SUV with serious performance capabilities, look no further than the Volkswagen Group. Its Porsche unit has had tremendous success with the Cayenne, a vehicle that has doubled its sales all on its own – and that's not even accounting for the Volkswagen Touareg or Audi Q7 that share some of its underpinnings. Keen to capitalize on that success, the German auto giant is overseeing the application of the same formula to two of its other divisions: Lamborghini, whi

Automotive News reports Bentley is staying the course with the company's EXP 9 F SUV Concept. The ultra-luxury automaker plans to bring the vehicle to the Beijing Motor Show exactly as it appeared at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this month, despite the fact that the concept didn't exactly debut to resounding acclaim. Critics described the design as awkward and unbecoming of nameplate like Bentley, but the automaker says it wants to vet the design in as many markets as possible before finalizing

Guess we called this one from the outset. Looking like a Mulsanne that just ate a Continental Flying Spur for breakfast and a GT for lunch, the Bentley EXP 9 F concept was the biggest disappointment – and we mean that literally – of the Geneva Motor Show. Apparently, Bentley must have agreed with our headline, because it's working on a new design for it's first production SUV, according to Britain's What Car? magazine.

The Volkswagen Group is comprised of 11 brands producing 240 vehicles across 49 factories throughout the world. So the best way to show off the range of the VW family is to cram a few thousand journalists and VIPs into a massive makeshift stand to outline the Group's goals, what's in the pipeline and what you'll be able to buy later this year.

There once was a time, not so long ago, that if you wanted a luxury SUV, your options basically came down to a Range Rover. The Bentley of off-road vehicles, they called it. But those days are behind us, as nearly every luxury automaker is making a sport-ute of its own. And soon, so will Bentley.